Chapter 62 Godric's Hollow
October 23, 1981
Sirius Black circled above the Whomping Willow, making sure to give the tree a wide birth before bringing his motorbike into a seamless landing on the outskirts of the Hogwarts grounds. He removed his helmet and swung his leg over the bike, beckoning wordlessly for his companion to follow him.
The second man swung his own leg over the seat in imitation of Sirius and managed somehow to tangle himself in the bike's footpegs. There was a loud crash followed by an even louder exclamation of pain as man and bike toppled over together.
Sirius stalked to them, righted his bike, and yanked the helmet off the second man's head. "Wormtail, be quiet, for the love of Merlin!" he hissed furiously. "Do you want the entire castle to know that we're here?"
"Yes, I'm fine, thanks for asking," Peter sniffed as he climbed to his feet and brushed himself off with an air of injured dignity.
"I didn't ask because I don't care," Sirius snapped. "If you're enough of a git to hurt yourself getting off a motorcycle, then you've got bigger problems than a few scrapes and bruises." He glanced toward the castle again. "We'd best be on our way in case anybody heard that."
"I don't know what you're so worried about," Peter complained as they hid the motorcycle in the trees and put a few Concealment Charms on it for good measure. "There's no one to see; it's after hours."
Sirius gritted his teeth. "I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer."
"Er ……why not?" Peter wanted to know.
Sirius counted to three and took a deep breath before answering. "If you'd go to the trouble of using your thick head," he said in a would-be calm voice, "then you'd know that just because it's after hours doesn't mean that there's no one to see. Some students go out after hours, just like we did PRACTICALLY EVERY NIGHT OF OUR HOGWARTS CAREER!"
"Oh. Right," Peter said lamely, but Sirius hadn't stuck round to listen. So he turned and scurried after Sirius, leaving the motorbike hidden in the dark.
"You certainly got here quickly," Professor Dumbledore observed as he led Sirius to his private office. For reasons unknown, Peter had been instructed to wait in Professor McGonagall's office while Sirius accompanied the headmaster.
"Yeah, well, we took the motorbike," Sirius explained.
"Ah," Professor Dumbledore said, amusement thick in his voice. "That would indeed explain it." The pair stopped in front of the familiar gargoyle statue, and Dumbledore stepped forward. "Licorice rope," he said, and the gargoyle rumbled to one side, revealing the staircase. Dumbledore and Sirius stepped on to begin the ascent to the office, the gargoyle swinging shut behind them.
At the top of the staircase, Dumbledore motioned Sirius ahead. Puzzled, Sirius stepped into the office…..and saw James, Lily, and Harry sitting in front of Dumbledore's desk.
"James!" Sirius, abandoning all pretensions of cool, rushed forward to tackle his best friend. "Lily, Harry!" he turned swiftly to hug Lily as well, then picked Harry up and tossed him in the air.
"See!" Harry gave his version of his godfather's name and squealed in delight as Sirius caught him.
"What're you doing here?" Sirius demanded "What's going on?"
"Perhaps we should all sit down and discuss that, Sirius," Dumbledore answered him mildly. He conjured another chair and waved Sirius into it. After exchanging a glance with James, Sirius complied.
"How's Remus?" James' eyes flicked toward the closed door.
"He's still in St Mungo's," Sirius told him. "His burn was - bad, so they need to keep him for a couple of days. Peter's with me though; he was there when I received the owl from Professor Dumbledore and insisted on coming."
"Have you heard anything about Dorcas or Morwenna?" Lily asked anxiously.
"There hasn't been any word about Dorcas," Sirius replied, relinquishing Harry to Lily. "But Morwenna sent me a note with some sort of tropical bird, so it seems as though she got there." He pulled a note in Morwenna's distinctive handwriting from his pocket and offered it to Lily, who scanned it quickly and handed it to James. Morwenna had left the note unsigned, saying only that she was safe and they could count on her for a place to hide, should anyone ever need one.
"Now will you tell me what's going on?" Sirius demanded once again. "I thought you'd gone into hiding."
"We have," James answered, "or at least we will. But we –" he glanced quickly at Lily, "we need you to help us."
"Help you? How?" Sirius was clearly confused. "I mean, of course I'll help you, but what do you want me to do?"
Lily and James exchanged a glance. "Maybe you'd better explain, Professor," Lily suggested.
"Very well," Dumbledore turned to Sirius, his expression intent. "As I've explained to Lily and James, Sirius, my sources inform me that Voldemort is furious that Harry escaped from him last night. He has reportedly focused all of his considerable resources and energy on finding Harry."
Dumbledore let the impact of his words sink in for a moment before continuing. "I have given the matter much thought," he went on, "and I believe that the Fidelius Charm is Lily, James, and Harry's best chance for survival."
"Fidelius Charm?" Sirius seemed dazed. "What's the – I've never heard of –"
"Precisely the point, Sirius," Dumbledore said gravely. "It's very old magic, mostly forgotten now, and there's a very good chance that Lord Voldemort is among those who have forgotten it.
"The Fidelius Charm hides a secret inside the soul of a person, a Secret-Keeper," Dumbledore explained. "Once the spell is cast, the secret is magically concealed and cannot be revealed unless the Secret-Keeper chooses to do so."
James leaned toward his friend. "We're asking you to be our Secret-Keeper, Sirius."
It was nearly two hours before Sirius left Dumbledore's office to rejoin Peter and return home. Worn out with planning, Lily and James collected Harry, who had gone to sleep in a chair long ago, and prepared to go to their room in the next wing for some much-needed sleep.
Dumbledore sat silently behind his desk and watched them. "I must ask you again," he said softly, "are you absolutely certain that you wish to have Sirius as your Secret-Keeper?"
James turned to face the headmaster. "Completely," he answered firmly. "I would trust, I have trusted, Sirius with my life, and Lily's and Harry's too. He'd die before he'd turn us over to the Death Eaters."
"I admire your faith in Sirius," Dumbledore spoke in a careful tone, "but this is an extremely dangerous situation. Lord Voldemort and his followers will not hesitate to hunt down and torture anyone they believe might have the information they want, and Sirius will be the first person the Death Eaters will seek out. There are other choices; I myself would gladly act as your Secret-Keeper."
"You've done so much already, Professor," Lily protested. "We can't allow you to put yourself in danger to help us. Everyone in the Order looks to you to lead them. If something were to happen to you, I'm not sure the Order would survive it."
"Sirius said he'd go into hiding as well; the Death Eaters won't be able to find him," James spoke with confidence. "We'll be all right."
"Very well," Dumbledore smiled at them, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "It is of course your decision. You'd better take Harry to bed." Dumbledore rose to escort them to their room.
"Er – Professor?" James asked hesitantly.
"Yes?" Dumbledore regarded him mildly.
"There is one thing you could do for me, if you don't mind," James hedged.
"That all depends on what you're asking of me, I suppose," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily. "What is it that you need?"
"Well –" Feeling a bit foolish, James fumbled round on the floor next to his chair. "You see, I have this Invisibility Cloak, and – well, I was wondering if you'd keep it for me. Keep it here, I mean. My father gave the cloak to me and his father gave it to him, and – well, I wouldn't want anything to happen to it if something happens to me."
The room fell silent as Lily and Dumbledore watched James fold the cloak, lovingly straightening the folds before holding it out to the headmaster.
"Of course I'll keep it for you, James," was all Dumbledore said, but his eyes, sad and intense and wise, spoke volumes. He accepted the bundle from James. "It will be safe here until it is needed again."
October 24, 1981
Godric's Hollow was a quiet little village, the sort of place where the shopkeepers greeted most of their customers by name and nobody locked their doors at night. Several secluded holiday cottages dotted the wooded area round the town, and the village did a small tourist trade; people passing through on their way to the larger holiday areas would often stop to shop or eat, or even stay for a night or two. Godric's Hollow was a perfectly unassuming, pleasant place that was small enough to be overlooked but large enough that a few strangers wouldn't cause a stir. In short, it was an ideal place to disappear.
These were the thoughts running through James' head as he watched the village pass by the car window. Dumbledore was right as usual, he decided. Godric's Hollow felt safe; it seemed like the last place on earth that the most powerful Dark wizard in a century would ever go.
"Are we the second turn off this road or the third?" Lily asked, drawing James' attention back to the present. She'd insisted upon driving, claiming that James was "rather conspicuous" when he was behind the wheel.
"Erm…" James consulted the map. "The third."
Lily made the appointed turn onto one of the many small roads that led out of the village. "You really think we'll be safe here?" she asked after a bit.
"Of course we will," James said with more conviction than he actually felt. "Dumbledore said this was our best chance. We'll be all right." Lily squeezed James' hand briefly before returning her attention to the road.
A few moments later, Lily and James' Muggle car came to a stop in front of a house. "Here we are," Lily said unnecessarily. She and James collected Harry from the backseat and the three of them turned to study their new home.
It was a thoroughly ordinary little stone cottage, as average and unassuming as Godric's Hollow itself. There was a picturesque view of the village across the meadow, and the cottage was secluded from nearby houses by a grove of trees. "I think it looks nice," James said finally.
"Me too," Lily smiled and hugged Harry a bit tighter.
The roar of an engine filled the quiet little clearing, and a familiar motorbike rounded the bend and thundered to a halt in front of the cottage.
"This is it?" Sirius' voice, slightly muffled by his helmet, was incredulous.
"Yeah," James answered. "This is it."
"Well, you'll certainly blend in with the Muggles," Sirius observed. "It looks like you evicted someone's dear old granny from this place."
"You evicted someone's granny?" Peter yanked his helmet off so that he could hear properly.
"Of course not," Lily explained patiently. She and James exchanged a quick, uneasy glance; what was Peter doing here? "Sirius was just being odd."
"Not to mention talkative," James added with a pointed nod in Peter's direction. "Nice to know we have a Secret-Keeper who can't keep his mouth shut. It really inspires loads of confidence."
It was Sirius and Peter's turn to swap glances. "Peter's here for a very good reason," Sirius began, "one that I think we ought to talk about inside."
James frowned at his best mate, but elected to fumble round in his pocket for the key rather than comment. Meanwhile, Lily, Peter, and Sirius returned to the car to fetch the baggage. After retrieving another small knapsack from the motorbike, Lily, Sirius, Peter, and Harry followed James into the cottage and locked the door behind them.
It didn't take long to establish the locations of the sitting room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms, and so James, Lily, Harry, Sirius, and Peter found themselves gathered in the cottage's sitting room, regarding each other with solemn expressions as each searched for a way to broach an awkward, even painful subject.
Talk about your proverbial elephant in the room, Lily thought as she scanned the other people facing her. They'd spread themselves around the sitting area, consciously or unconsciously leaving space for the missing people who should have been seated in between. Kathleen had been the first to leave the ranks after Hogwarts, and gradually the others had followed. Alice and Frank were hiding somewhere, too occupied with keeping Neville safe to help Lily and James. Morwenna had gone into hiding far away, and it made Lily shudder to think about what had probably happened to Dorcas. Remus had come back once, but it was only Sirius and Peter who were here with them now, and soon Lily and James too would disappear.
"Has there been any word about Dorcas?" James asked into the silent room.
Sirius and Peter shared a telling look. "What is it?" Lily stared hard at Sirius, who was carefully avoiding eye contact.
"Dorcas –" Sirius began, looking toward Peter again.
"We know what happened to Dorcas now," Peter said in a small voice.
"Just say it," James divided a stare between Peter and Sirius.
"The Death Eaters took Dorcas to Voldemort, on his orders," Sirius stated flatly. "Voldemort - killed her personally."
Lily fought to swallow round the lump in her throat; she was afraid she was going to be sick. Complete silence filled the room as Lily and James absorbed the news.
"We have to perform the Charm," James felt panicked and claustrophobic; Voldemort and his Death Eaters were closing in on them, on Harry, as he eliminated their friends one by one. He jumped to his feet and fumbled for his wand. "We have to do it now. There isn't anything else we need, is there? Because –"
"James," Sirius interrupted his best friend's panic. "I need to talk to you about the Fidelius Charm. Sit down."
Struck dumb with shock, James sat. In all the years he'd known him, James had never heard Sirius sound quite so somber.
Sirius took a deep breath. "James, Lily," he began, "I think you should use Peter as your Secret-Keeper."
"What?" James stared. "But you –"
"Think about this for one second, Prongs," Sirius urged. "Anyone who knows you at all knows that I'm your best mate. We were always together at Hogwarts, and that hasn't actually changed much since we left school either. Voldemort has spies in the Order and the Ministry; we can be sure that he knows who's close to you, knows who you'd trust with your family's lives. There's even a chance that he might know about the Fidelius Charm. And if he does, who do you think he's going to come after? Me."
"But –" James tried again.
"Don't you get it?" Sirius leaned forward, gesturing agitatedly. "I'm the obvious choice! I'd die before I'd give you and Lily and Harry up to him, you know I would, but we both know that there are things other than torture that Voldemort could use to get the information he wants. Veritaserum, to name one, and there are loads of other potions and spells like it, some that we know about and others we've never even heard of. If Voldemort uses any of those things on me, the secret would be out and he'd come for you."
"What are you saying, Sirius?" Lily asked quietly. "That we should use Peter rather than you and just hope that Voldemort doesn't guess? How is that any less of a risk than our original plan? Anyone who knows James knows that you and he are best friends, true, but they would also know that Peter and Remus come in as a close second. You really think that Voldemort would only consider you and dismiss Peter and Remus simply because you're the closest to us?"
"Of course not," Sirius raked a hand through his hair in a gesture highly reminiscent of James. "I'm saying that we need to confuse him, make things less obvious. What I'm proposing is this: we make Peter the Secret-Keeper, but we imply to everyone else who knows about the Charm – mainly Dumbledore and Remus – that I'm the Secret-Keeper. That way they won't know the truth, if anything happens to them. Then Peter and I go into hiding – in separate hiding places – and we – well, we wait this whole thing out."
"It just might work," James said slowly, straightening it all out in his head.
"But it's such a lot to ask of you, Peter," Lily turned to Peter, who had been silent all through Sirius' explanation. "I – we – certainly wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to have any part of it."
"Of course I'll do it," Peter's voice squeaked a bit and he cleared his throat loudly before continuing in a more determined tone. "I'll do whatever it takes to help keep Harry safe; you know that."
"It's settled then," James got to his feet again and this time the others followed.
October 25-30, 1981
Lily and James spent the week after the Fidelius Charm was cast acclimating themselves and their baby to their new surroundings. Though they felt more secure than they had in months, Lily and James still weren't quite optimistic enough to venture out into the town very often. However, they found more than enough to occupy themselves in their little cottage.
Lily hadn't done things the Muggle way in quite some time and James had never lived as a Muggle at all, so basic household chores required a great deal of effort, argument, and, when all else failed, improvisation. Even when Lily had lived as a Muggle with her parents she hadn't done a great deal of housework, so lots of tasks were just as much a mystery to her as they were to James (which irritated him to no end).
Cooking proved to be one of their biggest challenges; if Lily had thought her and James' cooking skills had been a bit sketchy when armed with wands, said skills were completely nonexistent without them. James had managed to get pepper in both his and Harry's eyes one afternoon when he was attempting to make sandwiches, and Lily had banned him from preparing tea altogether after he'd mistook some withered lettuce for tea leaves. For her part, Lily had set two wooden spoons and one finger on fire in her attempt to make an omelette and had charred at least a dozen slices of toast into oblivion.
Their laundry skills weren't much better; it had taken Lily and James two loads of pink socks to learn about separating colours and whites, and they'd given up on starch entirely after one ill-fated experience. James had refused point-blank to cut the grass, which Lily actually thought might be for the best, all things considered.
Harry, at least, was enjoying his Muggle holiday; Lily and James hadn't taken him to the countryside very often in his short life (it had been easier to protect him in their London flat), and Harry was fascinated by the abundance of grass, trees, and small furry animals. "What's that?" quickly became his best phrase (though it did tend to come out sounding more like "Whussat?") and if he wasn't out in the walled garden behind the house, he had his face pressed to the window so he could stare at it.
"It's raining, Harry," James explained yet again to the baby one grey afternoon. "We can't go outside right now."
"Go!" Harry repeated stubbornly, clutching at the windowsill in agony. "Goooo!"
"Lils!" James, nervous in the face of Harry's crisis, called for reinforcements. "This distraction bit isn't working!"
"I can't come right now," Lily's voice drifted out from the kitchen. "I'm trying to find something that we might be capable of cooking for dinner."
"Ma-ma!" Realising his lack of progress with one parent, Harry did his best to summon the other.
"All right," Lily sighed in defeat as she abandoned the kitchen for the sitting room. "What are the pair of you doing in here?"
"Go!" Harry pointed emphatically at the grey, wet outdoors.
"You try," James pointed to Harry in turn.
"It's raining, darling," Lily crouched down next to Harry. "We'll go outside later, or tomorrow."
"You think I haven't tried that?" James scowled.
"Go!" Harry was scowling now as well.
"Erm…" Lily hedged, distracted. When they wore matching scowls like this, Harry's resemblance to James was uncanny, bordering on alarming. Much as she loved James Potter, Lily wasn't sure she was equipped to raise a miniature one.
"That's all you've got?" James was unimpressed.
"Unless you can make it stop raining, I doubt we're going to make Harry happy right now," Lily pointed out.
"We could – hey! We could bring Harry to watch us cook," James suggested. Lily and James had come to a mutual agreement that Muggle cooking wasn't something either of them should do alone.
"And then maybe we could feed him to a crocodile, or let him run across the motorway." It was Lily's turn to scowl. "It's not exactly safe fun for the whole family when we cook, in case you hadn't noticed!"
James opened his mouth but quickly realized that he had no defense. "Or maybe we could just pop outside for a second," he mumbled.
"Go?" Harry turned big green eyes on his mother.
"Oh, all right," Lily relented. "It's loads safer taking your chances with getting sick out there than cooking with Mummy and Daddy in here."
James collected boots and coats from the cupboard and began to work Harry's feet into his boots while Lily stuffed the baby's upper half into a raincoat. Then they quickly donned their own things and ventured out into the rain, Harry clinging to their hands.
The moment they reached the garden, Harry let go of his parents to toddle precariously to the edge of the nearest puddle and jumped into it with both feet.
"Harry!" Lily exclaimed over the baby's gleeful shrieks, "You're soaking wet! Don't jump in the puddles, darling, or you really will catch – Gaah!" Lily screeched and leapt back as a tide of water from the large puddle that James had just jumped into washed over the tops of her boots and into her socks.
"C'mon, Lils," James smirked and nodded toward an untouched puddle. "You know you want to."
Lily rolled her eyes at James, but before she could formulate a retort he had jumped into another puddle, closely followed by Harry. Water spattered everywhere, drenching all three of them even further.
"Whussat?" Harry plunged toward another puddle on wobbly legs. Lily fought a smile as she watched him go. If you can't beat them, join them, she thought. She couldn't remember the last time she'd gone jumping into puddles, or even if she ever had….
"Lils?" Lily looked up and there was James standing at the edge of a particularly large puddle, grinning a wicked grin and holding out his hand to her.
Lily shrugged, smiled, took James' hand, and jumped. Cold puddle water flew in an impressive arc across the garden, sloshing all over them along with the rain, and Lily couldn't help but laugh. Like so many other things since she'd met James Potter, puddle jumping was proving to be more fun than she'd expected.
October 30, 1981
Peter Pettigrew removed the hood from his head and nervously smoothed the hair underneath in preparation for meeting his master. As he did so, the sleeve of his black robe fell back, exposing the Dark Mark branded into his left forearm. Peter tugged the sleeve down again through force of habit before he remembered himself. No need to hide the Mark here. Still, Peter patted the sleeve nervously into place. He didn't quite feel like being reminded about his loyalties at this particular moment.
As he waited, Peter's mind wandered back to his Hogwarts days. He'd done Muggle Studies his third year; he'd wanted to do Arithmancy like James, Sirius, and Remus, but barely a week into the term the professor had suggested he find something else. Most of those Muggle Studies lectures were a blur to him now (he certainly didn't advertise his lessons in Muggle culture around the Dark Lord and his followers) but a line by a famous Muggle playwright had stuck with him: "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well if it were done quickly." Peter didn't remember the name of the writer exactly (Shapespeeler, or something like that) or what had happened in the play it had come from, but he'd found it to be good advice: do the things you had to do quickly, before you could think about them too much. Because the less you thought about them, the easier they were to do.
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well if it were done quickly," Peter repeated the phrase aloud like a talisman, keeping time with the silent refrain in his head. "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well if it were done quickly."
It had taken him nearly a week to get here, nearly a week to find both the courage and the opportunity to slip away from the hiding place Sirius had put him in and arrange a meeting with his master. Peter wasn't entirely sure how he felt about what he was here to do, and he didn't want to think about it much. On the one hand, he wouldn't be able to keep up his pretense as a spy anymore, nor would there be any reason for him to, and his role as Order member, Marauder, and friend would be officially finished. On the other hand, he would be a hero among the Death Eaters, would have the admiration of the Dark Lord. This was the side that Peter tried to focus on as he repeated his mantra under his breath.
He tried not to think about baby Harry dying, about how Lily and James would feel if they survived, or about how he would feel if they didn't. He tried not to picture his mother's horror, or Professor Dumbledore's disappointment, or Remus' rage as he realised what Peter had done to Kathleen. He tried not to imagine how Sirius would react, or what Sirius might do to him if given the opportunity. He tried not to count the number of people who would hate him soon, or the number who would want him dead.
And though Peter had become an expert at blotting out the faces of the people who had died because of him, he couldn't quite do it this time. No matter how many times he repeated the phrase, all he could think of was James, Sirius, and Remus and how they'd befriended him and taken care of him in their own ways. He remembered how Lily had always been kind to him, remembered the Marauders' glory days at Hogwarts, and how happy Lily and James had been to have Harry.
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well if it were done quickly," Peter repeated more firmly, an edge of desperation in his tone now. "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well if it were done quickly." He'd wanted to blurt out Lily and James' secret before he could think about it, but the Dark Lord wasn't here yet, and Peter was alone with plenty of time to think, and he couldn't get it done quickly.
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well if it were done quickly." Peter tried not to imagine things, tried to get hold of himself. He wouldn't have the Marauders anymore, it was true, but he'd have the Death Eaters, and he'd have his master's gratitude, maybe even his affection. And if it all went wrong, well, then, Peter had a plan for that too. He'd come out of this all right; rats could survive in places and in ways that dogs, stags, and wolves couldn't. "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well if it were done quickly."
"What's that you're babbling about, Wormtail?" A high, cold voice asked, a hint of amused malice in its tone. "Gone over the edge, have you?"
"It – it's nothing, my lord," Peter said quickly through white lips. He took a deep breath. Here goes nothing, he thought. Do it quickly or you might not do it at all. "I have good news. The Potters have made me their Secret-Keeper. I know where they're hiding."
Voldemort's thin, cold lips stretched into a semblance of a smile.
"Excellent."
October 31, 1981
10 PM
"Someday there'll be a world without Voldemort," James said softly, stroking Harry's back as the baby blinked blearily in his cot, fighting sleep. "And we'll leave Godric's Hollow and never have to hide from anything again. And I'll teach you how to fly a broomstick, just like my dad taught me. And we'll play Quidditch with Sirius and Remus and Peter…."
Lily crept up the stairs and stood in the doorway to Harry's room to listen, the bottle she had gone to fetch for the baby dangling from her hand, forgotten. Harry had always had trouble falling asleep during rainstorms, so James had begun telling him bedtime stories until he fell asleep. They weren't really stories, and Lily suspected that it had more to do with the sound of James' voice than the story itself, but they did seem to help Harry. Lately all of James' stories began the same way, and Lily found that she too loved to hear the bedtime story. Not to help her sleep, but because Lily needed to believe, as James did, that one day there would be a world without Voldemort.
"…..and you'll have a normal wizard childhood, where no one will think you're a freak or that there's something wrong with you because of the things you'll be able to do," James continued in soft, soothing tones. "And someday you'll go to Hogwarts, just like your mum and dad did, and you'll turn the place upside down, just like I did with Sirius," James grinned at the thought. "And every holiday you'll be able to come home and have fun with Mummy and me. Although Mummy and I will be taking a holiday as soon as it's safe again, one that you won't be coming along on. No offense, mate, but if you ever want to have any brothers and sisters….."
Lily didn't quite stifle a laugh in time, and James whirled round and spotted her. "er, hi," he said a bit lamely. "Just putting the baby to sleep –"
"By telling him about the sex you plan to have someday," Lily finished for him, shaking her head and hiding her face behind curtains of her long red hair. "Leave it to you."
James reached out with one hand and tilted Lily's face up to the light. She hadn't been able to hide her amused smile and her eyes were overbright, as if she'd teared up a bit during James' monologue but hadn't quite cried. "You liked my story and you know it," he smirked.
"Quiet; Harry's trying to go to sleep," Lily blushed.
James shook his head and gestured toward the cot, where Harry was sleeping peacefully on his stomach. As always, Lily felt her heart swell in her chest at the sight of her baby, and she reached out to brush his cheek. "He passed out around the time I was telling him about Hogwarts," James reported as he put an arm round Lily and pulled her out of the baby's room. "He's gone to sleep much faster since we came to Godric's Hollow."
"The country definitely agrees with Harry," Lily observed. "He's really loved it here."
"Yeah," James agreed, squeezing Lily a bit tighter. "We'll have to get another place in the country someday." His voice was wistful, and Lily knew that James was thinking of the time he'd spent in his parents' country house when he was growing up. James had asked Sirius to sell that house along with the London one when Sirius had offered to take care of the Potters' estate, saying that he'd never be able to go to either house again. But it made Lily smile to think of having another house in the country, one that would be free of old ghosts.
They reached the bottom of the staircase, and Lily went to relight the candle in the jack o' lantern that had fizzled out while she was upstairs. She managed to strike the match properly after only two tries and coaxed the candle back to life. The jack o' lantern grinned toothily at her, casting an orange-ish glow over the sitting room.
She, James, and Harry had spent most of the afternoon carving jack o' lanterns, which had proved to be another difficult feat without the use of magic. To make matters worse, Lily and James had laughed to the point of hysterics remembering the sadly botched pumpkin prank that the Marauders had attempted the Halloween of their seventh year, and hysterical laughter wasn't conducive to a steady carving hand. Finally they'd managed to produce one jack o' lantern with recognisable eyes, nose, and mouth and had displayed it proudly on the mantle.
Lily smiled again remembering the prank. "What do you want to do now?" She called over her shoulder to James, who had wandered off to sit on the sofa. "It might be fun to see if we could get these," she indicated the three sad, rejected jack o' lanterns stacked next to the dining room table, "to sing, or even to act like Bludgers, but I suppose that would sort of ruin the whole non-magic –" Lily came to a stop as she caught sight of James' face. "What is it? Are you all right?"
"Sure," James attempted a smile. "Could I talk to you for a minute?"
Wordlessly Lily moved to sit next to James on the sofa. "Go ahead," she invited.
"Lily," James turned to face her and took both of her hands in his. "Lily, I want you to promise me that if the worst happens, if Voldemort finds us, you'll take Harry and get to Dumbledore."
"Why are you saying this?" Lily began angrily, but James stopped her.
"Lily, please," James inhaled again before he continued. "I need you to promise me."
"And you think I would just take Harry and run, and leave you there to die?" Lily felt tears forming but blinked them back, her expression fierce. "I'll do whatever it takes to keep Harry safe – you know that – but I won't leave you."
"I know you wouldn't choose to," James' eyes stared into Lily's. "And I know you'll do what you have to do to keep Harry safe, but I want you to promise me that if it – gets bad – you'll take Harry and go."
"I can't –" Lily shook her head and swallowed the lump in her throat. "I don't –"
"Lily," James leaned in until his face was a breath away from hers, "promise me."
"All right," Lily said quietly. "I promise. But you had damn well better be right behind us, James Potter, because I bloody well will not live without you!"
James closed the minuscule distance between them and kissed her, not quite trusting his voice or the words that might come tumbling out. It seemed like an eternity before they pulled back and lay back on the couch tangled together, their hands tightly clasped. The jack o' lantern cast a warm glow over them as they listened to the storm howl outside.
"James?" Lily said into the silence.
"Mm?"
"Say it again." There was a pleading note in Lily's voice.
James kissed Lily's cheek and tightened his arms around her before he began.
"Someday there'll be a world without Voldemort….."